Report by Chris Vines
The Southside Southerners played host to the Valley View Blazers, one of the conferences preseason favorites Monday night in a matchup of top 10 teams in Class 4A, and came away with an impressive 64-55 win to move to 8-0 on the season.
Southside was hot from the field in the first half, showing patience on offense against Valley View and their 6′-9″ division one signee CJ Delancey and leading at the end of the first quarter, 15-9.
13 points from Devan Halford in the second quarter stretched the lead to 19 points, 35-16 at the half.
Jonathan Shane added eight of his 14 points in the third quarter when the Southerners outscored the Blazers 16-11 to further pad their lead 51-27 and decrease the chances of a Valley View comeback.
The Blazers fought hard in the fourth, but the Southerners had answers for every comeback attempt and held on to a 64-55 win.
Devan Halford finished with 28 points, Jonathan Shane with 14, Blayne Bufford with eight; Jake Painter and Trevor Longo both had five, and Ayden Cuzzort had four.
The Southerners came into the night ranked fifth in Class 4A in the state in the newly released Arkansas Media and Sportswriters poll that came out Monday afternoon and looks to hold on to that ranking later in the week with a game against Pocahontas.
